diff --git a/src/nspawn/nspawn-mount.c b/src/nspawn/nspawn-mount.c
index cf093cd0a2..a3447d948a 100644
--- a/src/nspawn/nspawn-mount.c
+++ b/src/nspawn/nspawn-mount.c
@@ -847,8 +847,10 @@ static int mount_inaccessible(const char *dest, CustomMount *m) {
                 return m->graceful ? 0 : r;
 
         r = mount_verbose(m->graceful ? LOG_DEBUG : LOG_ERR, NULL, where, NULL, MS_BIND|MS_RDONLY|MS_REMOUNT, NULL);
-        if (r < 0)
+        if (r < 0) {
+                umount_verbose(where);
                 return m->graceful ? 0 : r;
+        }
 
         return 0;
 }